Activists' detention centre protests

Around 200 demonstrators have gathered outside Harmondsworth and Colnbrook detention centres to "voice their disgust" at their existence and call for their closure.

People from all over the country waved banners bearing slogans such as "release the detainees" and "no one is illegal", beat drums and blew whistles.

Organisers No Borders London said the demonstration was organised before the release of a critical report by HM Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers, but numbers had been swelled by it.

The November 28 report found that 60% of Harmondsworth's detainees felt unsafe, and criticised the management's overemphasis on physical security and control.

It was followed the next day by a protest by detainees inside the centre, near Heathrow Airport, which had to be partly evacuated after asylum seekers started fires and spelt out Help and SOS with sheets.

Richard Thrift, a spokesperson for No Borders London said that indefinite detention in such places was "highly detrimental" to people's mental health and led to self-harm and suicide in a number of cases.

He said: "Centres such as Colnbrook and Harmondsworth are designed to punish people whose only crime is to enter the UK.

"We call on all those who value human rights to voice their disgust at the existence of these centres."

He added that conditions at Harmondsworth in particular since the November protest were "worse than ever".

He said: "Most detainees have been moved to other centres, or prisons. Those that remain are kept up to 10 to a room, with little or no access to healthcare."